Photonics Dictionary

A device used to count objects that pass a given point by allowing each object to obstruct a beam of light falling on a photocell. Slow counting rates can be recorded by a mechanical counter, but...

A technique proposed for studying the atomic structure of crystals by measuring the interference pattern generated when the crystal is illuminated by a burst of finely tuned x-rays. The resulting...

A photon jet is a narrow, highly collimated beam of light that is formed when light interacts with small dielectric microstructures, such as microspheres or microcylinders. This phenomenon arises due...

A photon sieve is an optical device used in the field of optics and imaging. It's designed to focus and shape light, typically for applications such as imaging or microscopy. The photon sieve...

Photonic crystals are artificial structures or materials designed to manipulate and control the flow of light in a manner analogous to how semiconductors control the flow of electrons. Photonic...

The generation of a grating on a flat surface by means of a series of interference fringes formed by a holographic process. See holographic grating.

Power modulation refers to the intentional variation of power levels in a signal, often in the context of electronic communication systems. This modulation technique is used to encode information...

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is an advanced imaging technique used in microscopy to measure and analyze the optical phase information of transparent specimens. Unlike traditional brightfield...

Quantum sensing refers to a class of sensing technologies that leverage principles from quantum mechanics to enhance the precision and sensitivity of measurements. Traditional sensors operate based...

Quantum-enhanced metrology refers to the use of quantum mechanics principles and techniques to enhance the precision and sensitivity of measurements in metrology—the science of measurement....

A qubit, short for quantum bit, is the fundamental unit of information in quantum computing and quantum information processing. Unlike classical bits, which can exist in one of two states (0 or 1),...

A device that is used to determine the index of refraction of a gas or liquid through the interference patterns formed by two beams of light, one of which has been transmitted by the sample. A single...

The phase change of one of the two split beams of an interference microscope.

A double-plate device used to transmit polarized light and form interference fringes of the light, thus indicating its presence. It consists of two calcite plates of equal thickness, cut parallel to...

Measure of the interference fringe pattern produced by the forward scattering of light by an optical fiber; the fringe pattern is inversely proportional to the fiber diameter.

A self-interference effect that generates random patterns; secondary speckle pattern (SSP) typically occurs in diffuse reflections of a laser on paper, white paint or rough surfaces. By tracking both...

An interferometer in which interference is produced between wavefronts that are sheared in the sample object by a small lateral distance.

A transmission interference microscope that produces interference patterns of a sample by using birefringent plates that split a polarized beam of light into ordinary and extraordinary rays, then...

Device that uses a coherent reference wave to record the interference patterns produced by incident ultrasonic waves on an object.

Spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) is a technique that extends traditional Raman spectroscopy by incorporating measurements at different spatial offsets. This method allows for the selective...

Refers to the variety of techniques that use the interference pattern produced by laser light diffusely reflected by an object. There are two basic techniques: direct laser photography, used when...

A power intensity pattern produced by the mutual interference of partially coherent beams that are subject to minute temporal and spatial fluctuations.

Structural color refers to coloration in materials that is not caused by pigments or dyes but is instead a result of the physical structure of the material. In structural color, the interaction of...

Swept-source optical coherence tomography is an imaging technique used in medical diagnostics, particularly in ophthalmology, to visualize and analyze the internal structures of biological tissues,...

An imaging technique in which an object moving through an interference field formed in space scatters light and is spatially recorded on a photographic film as a hologram. If the interference field...

The series of interference bands that appear in the spectrum when a specified glass plate is inserted into a spectroscope, from the side of the blue portion of the spectrum, so that the plate...

A transparent block shaped accurately to reverse curvatures of the components it is used to test. By contacting an accurately finished negative lens shape with a newly made positive, the conformity...

A light-interference device whose excitation is determined by the modulation of a light beam by an ultrasonic field.

Equipment dependent on the effects of a vacuum. The principal applications in optics are in the coating of lenses and substrates and the fabrication of multilayer interference filters.

Volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) are specialized optical elements that consist of periodic variations in refractive index throughout the volume of a transparent material, typically a photosensitive glass...

Also referred to as physical optics - the area of optics in which the wave nature of light is essential when defining its propagation. To exploit the wave phenomena of light, one must interact light...

Any type of interference produced by a beamsplitter.

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) refers to a phenomenon in wave physics, particularly in optics, where waves, such as light or sound waves, are trapped and circulate along the periphery of a curved...

In an interference pattern, that point where there is no difference between the optical paths of the interfacing wavefronts.

A grating that specularly reflects the specified long radiation wavelengths and diffracts the shorter wavelengths off in known directions, eliminating the interference of randomly scattered radiation.